


Mom and Mum

by iolanthe_rosa



Category: Lord of the Rings RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2003-06-12
Updated: 2003-06-12
Packaged: 2017-11-19 11:03:44
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/572570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iolanthe_rosa/pseuds/iolanthe_rosa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I can tell you for a fact that Dom's and Elijah's mothers do worry about them. But the rest is fiction. </p>
            </blockquote>





	Mom and Mum

Elijah hated spending money. All his life, it had been all about money. He loved to work, to act, but he had never fooled himself about why he was working. While his father struggled with odd jobs in L.A., his paycheck kept the roof over their heads. And when his father was finally gone, the full weight of the Wood family's financial needs landed squarely on his narrow shoulders.  
  
His mom told him he could quit acting any time he wanted. But he knew that was not true. Not then. Not when Hannah needed braces and Zach was in college and his mom looked sad and worried and he could earn $50,000 just by spending a day with Dan Quayle eating potato chips.  
  
His purchases for himself were always simple: video games, DVDs, CDs. He wore the same clothes over and over until it became just plain embarrassing. The day he wrote a large check for his first car, he got heart palpitations.  
  
But then he discovered that there was one thing he could spend his money on that gave him nothing but pleasure: his mother. If it were up to him, she would have had every extravagant piece of jewelry, European vacation, and luxury car in Los Angeles. Of course, she did not want any of those things. She was a simple Iowan at heart, and had had too much struggle in her life to be able to enjoy what she saw as unnecessary extravagance.  
  
But at last Elijah's opportunity came. She needed a new house, a smaller one. Zach had moved out long ago. Hannah was going to college. Now he was going to New Zealand, and when he came back, he'd get a place of his own.  
  
He was so excited. He was going to buy his mother her dream house! He knew she wanted something small by Los Angeles standards, so she could do the housecleaning herself and not lose her privacy to a housekeeper. She loved flowers and wanted a large garden. It needed to be in a quiet neighborhood. And convenient to St. Monica's. It must have big windows with the sun streaming through them.  
  
At last they found it, and it had everything Elijah and his mom had wished for. The guest house in back was a bonus. Elijah planned to live there when he got back while he searched for his own house.  
  
It cost $1.5 million. But Elijah did not flinch. He waited patiently while the realtors haggled; he did not care about the price. His mother wanted it, it would make her happy, and that was enough for him.  
  
The transaction was completed just before he left for New Zealand. There was something about knowing that his mother was safely settled in her new home that made him feel better about leaving. It was the last major purchase he would ever have to make on behalf of his family.  
  
One of the reasons the Lord of the Rings project was so special to him was because it was the first job he was going to do for no other reason than because he wanted to, not because he felt he had to work to support his family.  
  
He was going away to live on his own on the other side of the world. He was going to be a different person when he came back. He was glad his mom had a nice house.  
  
***  
  
Deborah Wood had done a lot of hard things in her life. Living hand to mouth for years in Iowa; uprooting the family to move to Los Angeles on nothing but a dream; learning to swim with the sharks who managed her son's career without the slightest concern for his well-being; watching her husband's self-esteem crumble as her own self-confidence grew; divorcing him against the wishes of her family and her church.  
  
Her life had been good, blessed even, as she was constantly emphasizing to her children. But it had been hard.  
  
Hardest of all was standing in the international terminal of LAX, watching her beautiful son board the plane to New Zealand. She breathed the stale airport air deeply into her lungs, willing herself not to cry. Deborah had agreed not to visit Elijah in New Zealand. He was going to live on his own for the first time. She knew that when he came back, he would no longer be her little boy.  
  
****  
  
"Hi Mom!" Elijah was 3 days late making his weekly phone call from Wellington.  
  
"Hi, Monkey, haven't heard from you in a while" Deborah answered, focusing all her energy on sounding pleasant and conversational, not accusing. She hated mothers like that: a guilt trip a minute. Her mother had been like that.  
  
"Sorry," Elijah replied. Why did she have to sound so accusing? It had only been a little over a week since his last call. "I've been crazy busy."  
  
"I know; I'm sure you are. Are you getting enough rest?" Ugh, she wanted to kick herself. Why had she asked that?  
  
"Yes, mom," Elijah lied. If she only knew. He hadn't gotten more than 5 hours of sleep a night for the past month.  
  
"Tell me about what you"ve been filming," she prompted.  
  
"Well, we did the Council of Elrond this week. It was kind of boring. I had to sit for, like, 15 hours a day in the same chair and look worried from five different angles."  
  
"Council of L. Ron?" she asked, confused. All she could think of was L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the Church of Scientology.  
  
"Elrond." Elijah said, emphasizing the "d" at the end. He felt a little irritated, which wasn't really fair since he had not read the book either. But it was hard to explain things to someone who was not familiar with the story. "He's like the king of the Elves, kind of. Hugo Weaving plays him; he's a really cool guy."  
  
"Oh," was all she could think of to say. She was not familiar with Hugo Weaving, though she had an idea about elves. In her mind's eye, she was picturing a really big garden gnome. She began to wonder if this movie was going to be as good as Elijah kept telling her it would be.  
  
"And what are you doing tonight?"  
  
"Tonight?" Elijah asked, suddenly on his guard. The honest answer: smoking, drinking, and, if he was lucky, kissing Dom. Kissing Dom. Dom. Dom. Dom. His mind went blank.  
  
"Hello? Eli?" Deborah's voice broke into the void. "I said, what will you be doing tonight... or any night?" she repeated, frustrated. This was not the conversation she had planned to have with her son. "What have you been doing for fun?" she tried.  
  
Elijah snapped back to reality. Okay, that was a more general question. The answer was still: smoking, drinking, and hoping to kiss Dom, but he thought he could cover it.  
  
"We've been learning to surf!" Relief washed over him as he successfully changed the subject to something he knew he could talk about with honest enthusiasm.  
  
He warmed to his subject and spent several minutes telling her about his experiences learning to ride a wave. He started discussing the other hobbits. "Yeah, and Billy took to it like you wouldn't believe! He's so good at it already, and it's only been a few weeks. Fantastic. I can still barely stay on the board, and he's already catching some pretty big waves.  
  
"But Dom, he's the one who's just, well, turned on by it. It's like this Zen thing for him. Becoming one with the ocean, he calls it. And he's so funny about the wet-suits. He does these great imitations of how famous people would look getting out of their wet suits. You should see him do Margaret Thatcher. It's hilarious. And Dom always cooks for us after we go surfing. I think he used to cook in a restaurant or something. God, he's even funny when he's cooking. He does this French chef routine that -" Elijah suddenly stopped himself. How long had he been talking about Dom? Was it too much? Would she suspect?  
  
"This Dom sounds like quite a character," Deborah laughed, happy that Elijah was sharing with her at last.  
  
"Yeah, he's great. Everyone's great. This is a great group of people. Great." Elijah ended, lamely.  
  
Deborah waited for more, but heard only silence at the end of the phone. "Well, I guess I should let you go," Deborah said reluctantly.  
  
"Yeah, I've got to go," Elijah answered, hoping he did not sound too relieved.  
  
Deborah's heart sank when she heard the relief in his voice. "Bye-bye, Monkey. You keep having fun, okay?"  
  
"Okay, Mom. Bye."  
  
Deborah hung up the phone. She knew Elijah better than anyone, and something was off. Something about his tone when he said good-bye. What was it, exactly? Sadness, fatigue, worry? No: guilt. What had they been talking about just before she hung up?  
  
Dom.  
  
****  
  
Despite having two years of motherhood under her belt, nothing could have prepared Aureen Monaghan for the shock that was baby Dominic. From the second he was born, screaming like a Banshee in the army hospital in Germany, she had known that Dominic was special. A real force of nature, his grandmother had called him.  
  
As a toddler, he was a passionate, persistent little bloke. The word "no" was always on his lips, and when told "no," he would hurl himself to the ground regardless of the circumstances. Austin used to joke that Dom's nose was the result of one too many tantrums on the hard floor of Tesco's candy aisle.  
  
Aureen steeled herself for the battle to ensure Dom emerged from childhood a kind, loving, and productive member of society. It was not going to be easy, but she was a strong woman.  
  
It actually seemed to help that they moved frequently when Dom was young. He always had a new batch of friends, and when he fell in with a lot Aureen did not approve of, well, another move would take care of that. And it kept him on his toes, always having to prove himself to the next peer group. Kept him humble, too.  
  
Keeping Dom focused was the biggest challenge. At any one moment, he was likely to be playing Gameboy, talking on the phone, torturing a fly, and kicking around a football, all at the same time. Then when the football inevitably knocked over the flower vase, he would use his sense of humor to make his mother laugh before she could lose her temper.  
  
Austin always said Dom was like a nuclear bomb: very effective, but you had to be careful where you aimed him.  
  
So when they decided to settle in Manchester, Aureen and Austin carefully considered where to aim Dominic's prodigious energy. They decided on Catholic school, football, and drama club. Between those three worlds, Dom would be hard-pressed to get into too much trouble, they hoped (and prayed.)  
  
Dom quickly developed a passion for performing. He was a natural: uninhibited, spirited, quick on his feet, imaginative. Although they should have been surprised when he won the audition for "Hetty Wainthropp," somehow they had expected it all along. He was their Dom, after all.  
  
Aureen had to admit to a kind of wonder that she was somehow responsible for having created these marvelous human beings, her boys. She and Austin had made it their life's work to get to know them, to support them, to pay attention. When Dom came out to his parents at age 19, it was just a formality. They had known all along, and so had he. The Monaghans were a close family, all proud of each other, and they adored Dom.  
  
***  
  
"I've met someone really special." Dom could hardly wait to tell his mum about it. But he did not want to jinx it, so he promised himself he would not say Elijah's name. He could not say Elijah's name without blushing and grinning like an idiot anyway, and he knew his mum would be able to tell if he was blushing, even over the phone.  
  
"Oh?" Aureen responded with interest. Dom had been in New Zealand just a few months. The initial homesickness had passed, but he still called her frequently. "And how's it going? Are you dating?"  
  
"Well, kind of. We hang out a lot. We listen to music and we surf together and stuff. But, you see, the thing is..." Would this be too much information for his mum? No, she could handle it. "The thing is" he repeated, "I would be his first."  
  
"Oh." So it *was* Elijah. Aureen smiled. The last time she had spoken to Dom, whenever he said Elijah's name, she could tell he was blushing. She suspected something might be brewing between them. "Are you sure he's not too young for you, Dom?"  
  
It sounded like she knew who he was talking about. Dom was grateful to her for not saying Elijah's name. She knew how superstitious he was about these things. "Oh, he's old enough. He's older than *me* in most ways. Just not in that one way."  
  
"So does he think you're special too?" Dom was not surprised by the tension in her voice when she asked that question. Aureen had seen his heart broken before. She knew that Dom fell in love easily and, for all his high spirits and joking, was hurt easily. He knew that if he got involved with someone she felt did not appreciate him enough, she was going to fly out and personally kill that person.  
  
"Yeah. I think so." Okay, now he was blushing. "He's just, well, coming to grips with things."  
  
"Patience is not one of your many virtues, Dommie," she said, a warning note in her voice. When she used his childhood nickname, he knew Mum was about to give him a lesson.  
  
"No, it's not," he admitted.  
  
"Is he worth waiting for?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"And so?" she asked expectantly.  
  
"So I'm going to be patient and wait for him," Dom answered obediently, relieved that the correct answer was also the answer he wanted to give.  
  
"Good boy. Good things come to those who wait, you know."  
  
"This wouldn't just be a good thing," he sighed. "This would be the best thing that ever happened to me."  
  
"Oh, Dommie," Aureen said, feeling a familiar pang of worry. "I really hope this works out for you. Do keep me updated, love."  
  
"Okay, Mum" Dom answered. "You know I will."  
  
***  
  
At first Elijah had been scared to death by his feelings for Dom. Sure, he had been attracted to guys for years. He had occasionally suspected he was gay. There were times he even felt sure he was gay. But when those thoughts entered his mind, he filed them away for later consideration. What was the point of opening *that* can of worms? He wasn"t interested in having a relationship with anyone, male or female right now, he told himself. He would deal with it later. Really.  
  
So when he arrived in New Zealand, he was simply not prepared for the heart stopping, cock throbbing reality of Dominic Monaghan.  
  
The thing they laughed about later was how exotic they had found each other at first, before the burping and farting and hangovers and dirty jokes and quarrels and tickling and morning breath. Dom, with his accent and his self-assurance, his quick wit, and his sharp and penetrating eyes. He was like no one Elijah had ever known: traveled, independent, funny, confident.  
  
And gay. Dom was comfortable with who he was and did not try to hide it, did not want to hide it. And Elijah wanted to be his friend, that was all. Just his friend.  
  
To Dom, Elijah was a stunning mass of contradictions: happy and sad, worldly and naïve, wise and silly, man and boy, angelic cherub and mischievous little devil. But never anything less than breathtakingly beautiful.  
  
And he was the star of the movie they were filming together. And a virgin. It was enough to give even impulsive Dom pause. Elijah wanted to be his friend. So they would be friends. And maybe, one day, something more. He could be patient. It would be hard, but he would be patient.  
  
Elijah had had a crush on Dom from the moment they met. And not a puppy love crush either. Elijah was computer savvy; he had surfed the Internet. For all his sheltered upbringing, he knew what two men could do together. But he had never really thought about actually doing those things to a man or having those things done to him. Until now.  
  
Now he thought about it obsessively: how good it would feel to have Dom's long fingers wrapped around his cock. How much better it would feel to have Dom's lovely crooked wet mouth sucking his cock. How much unbelievably even better than that to have Dom's cock up his ass. How much mind-blowingly unbelievably even better than that to shove *his* cock up Dom's ass. Elijah's masturbation habit had tripled within a week of meeting Dom. Even Elijah was embarrassed by it.  
  
What would his mother think? Oh my God.  
  
In a panic, he dated a few girls in Wellington. Dom was supportive. "Go ahead, Lij, have a ball. I want to hear all about your conquests in the morning." Because after all, they were just friends. Then Dom would wink and head off to the pub with Billy. Later, Billy told Elijah that Dom used to spend those evenings in an agony of suspense, terrified that Elijah would find a girl he liked.  
  
And so it had progressed, day after day, week after week, month after month, from friendship to soulmate in 1,893 painstaking steps, until, finally, Dom's patience was rewarded.  
  
***  
  
Dom's parents visited New Zealand twice during the shoot. On their second visit, Dom got to say the words he had been dreaming of for months:  
  
"Mum, Dad. This is my boyfriend, Elijah," he said proudly.  
  
Elijah marveled at how simple it seemed.  
  
Aureen and Austin smiled and shook Elijah's hand, as if this was a pronouncement they heard every day from their son.  
  
"Hello, Elijah," Aureen said. "Lovely to meet you."  
  
****  
  
Elijah and Dom were kneeling on the bed, Dom behind Elijah, his cock buried deep inside his lover. His hands on Elijah's hips steadied them both. Dom reached around with one hand and started stroking Elijah. Elijah marveled at how a hand around his cock could feel like it was around his entire body, like he was being caressed inside and out. As the heat washed over him and through him, Elijah slowly raised his arms above his head, writhing to meet Dom's rhythmic thrusts, moaning in time with Dom's moans, giving himself over completely to his love and his passion. Dom's cock was the only thing anchoring him to the bed.  
  
"Oh God, Dom, I'm flying!" he cried as they both came.  
  
They fell forward and rolled to their sides, Elijah tucked neatly against Dom, panting quietly. Dom was biding his time, nibbling lazily at the back of Elijah's neck, waiting for the bittersweet moment when his cock would slide out.  
  
For most people Elijah's age, having sex was a way of proving they were an adult. But Elijah had been an adult since he was seven; at least, that's how it felt to him. For him, sleeping with Dom proved other things: his love for Dom, and his trust in him.  
  
But it represented something more even than that. It was how he expressed his love for himself, his acceptance of himself. Sex with Dom was a form of freedom. Freedom to be Elijah Wood, without embarrassment or shame. True freedom.  
  
"Dom?" Elijah said.  
  
"Yeah, baby?" Dom pulled Elijah tighter to himself.  
  
"I'm ready to tell Mom."  
  
***  
  
Neither of Aureen's sons would be home to celebrate Christmas this year. Matt was going to be with his in-laws in Austria. Dom was staying over in New Zealand, traveling with his friends. Elijah was going home to L.A.  
  
She supposed she should feel sad about it, or depressed, but even when the boys lived at home, they were remarkably independent. She had gone through empty nest syndrome gradually since the boys were teens, and was beyond it now.  
  
She and Austin often joked that the key to successful parenting was to make life so miserable for one's children that they would move out as soon as possible. Guess they had succeeded. But, joking aside, she was secure in the love of her two wonderful sons.  
  
She would still make her traditional plum pudding. No point in having a tradition if you let it die the first time it was challenged by circumstances. Maybe she would send it to one of the boys. Or make two and send one to each. She sighed. They probably really did not want a plum pudding. Especially Dom. Dom did not like plum pudding, not even hers.  
  
Elijah would be home for Christmas, though. Maybe he and his family would like one. Yes, that would be nice. It looked like Elijah was well on his way to becoming a member of the family. Why not make him part of the tradition?  
  
***  
  
The small box from England was heavy. When Deborah opened it, she was surprised to find a dense brown cake inside, wrapped in cellophane. A small jar of something labeled "Hard Sauce" was included as well. She removed the Christmas card tucked inside. It read:  
  
"Happy Christmas! I thought you and your children might enjoy some Monaghan Family Recipe plum pudding. I was not sure if you knew how to make hard sauce, so I"m including some of that too. I very much look forward to meeting you in the New Year.  
  
Yours,  
Aureen and Austin Monaghan"  
  
A gift from Dom's parents. That was unexpected. And what was this about meeting in the New Year? She had no plans to go to England. Perhaps they were coming to America. But why would they want to meet her? No doubt Dom *would* be coming for a visit. After all, Dom was Elijah's best friend. Elijah had certainly left no doubt in her mind about that. His phone calls were always full of Dom. Lately, most of the time she talked to Elijah, Dom was there too, even that one time she got confused about the time difference and accidentally called him at 3:00 in the morning.  
  
Later, she would swear that she actually heard the sound, "Click!" in her head. It was so loud, she was surprised no one else heard it.  
  
"Hannah? Hannah!" she cried.  
  
"Yeah, Mom?" Hannah hurried into the room, concerned by her mother's urgent tone.  
  
"Hannah," she repeated, almost incoherent with surprise. "Elijah's gay."  
  
Hannah looked at the plum pudding, still in its box on the table, then at her mother again, trying to make the connection between the package and her mother's epiphany.  
  
Deborah's expression had changed from shock to something else. Hannah could not quite make it out, then she realized what it was: wonder. Her mother's face was suffused with wonder, as if she were looking at a newborn baby. "Elijah has a boyfriend. Dom is Elijah's boyfriend."  
  
Hannah approached her mom, folded her in her arms and squeezed her tight. "I know, Mom." Elijah had no secrets from Hannah. "It's okay."  
  
Deborah thought back to the day all those months ago when Elijah disappeared onto the airplane to New Zealand. Filming was over and he was going to be home for Christmas in two days. And just as she had predicted, he would no longer be her little boy.  
  
***  
  
Deborah worried about Elijah constantly. When he was a child, she felt guilty about encouraging him in his career as a child actor, about taking him away from a "normal" life. It had gone so quickly from being a fun idea, a dream, a means of escape from Iowa, to being something else entirely. With thousands of dollars flowing into the family bank account by virtue of Elijah's talent and beauty, she was suddenly confronted with pressures and decisions she had never anticipated. Would it impact Elijah"s career to get his teeth fixed? Should he go to a public school? Was she paying enough attention to Hannah and Zach? All this while her marriage disintegrated around her. Sometimes she felt like she was going to lose her mind.  
  
She told Elijah he could stop acting whenever he wanted, but they both knew it was a lie. The guilt of that lie would be with her for the rest of her life.  
  
She compensated for her sense of being overwhelmed by controlling everything that she could: bedtime, television shows, movies, friends, books, education. And church on Sunday. Always church on Sunday. If her children were going to be raised in Hollywood, then she was going to make certain they had good values.  
  
Elijah went from being an incorrigible, mischievous kid always in some sort of scrape, to being a model child, obedient, even tempered, quiet. She worried about that too. It was not normal. Zach and Hannah had the usual fits of temper, sullen teenage snits, rages over silly things. But not Elijah. The only time Elijah got upset was when she and Warren fought. More guilt.  
  
Deborah smiled at the irony: of all the things that she worried about, Elijah's lack of interest in girls had not been one of them. In fact, she was grateful for it. She had conveniently chalked it up to Elijah being a late bloomer. He was small for his age, and for all his adult behavior, he still appeared physically immature. He was just not ready, she had rationalized. Now she realized that it was she who was not ready.  
  
It was one of those things she had tucked away in the back of her mind to deal with later. She had hoped Elijah would come out of his shell in New Zealand, away from her and his own self-consciousness. That would be a good thing, though of course she worried that he would get hurt as he learned the ins and outs of dating.  
  
But what she was confronted with now was so far from what she had expected, she felt at a loss. She knew she should feel something, think something, but what? This was a personal crisis she would not be discussing with her priest. She was a religious woman, but one thing her divorce had taught her was that some things were best left between herself and God alone.  
  
She walked out into the garden of her new house and meditated. Being in the entertainment industry, she knew plenty of gay men. But she had not really thought about how it worked when a man fell in love with another man. It would not be any different than a man falling in love with a woman, she supposed. Love was love, right? She thought about her marriage. Sometimes love was not love, even when it was of the socially acceptable kind. Who was she to judge?  
  
She considered the inevitable list of things to worry about: prejudice, hate, disease. She blanched when she thought about the impact on Elijah's career. She was fully aware that to be known by the public to be gay was career suicide. At last, when he was finally free to do work because he wanted to, because he loved to, here was another impediment to overcome, a secret to keep. Why had it fallen to her sweet Elijah to have to follow such a difficult path?  
  
She thought about all the phone conversations she had had with Elijah this year, all the times he enthused about Dom. He had not sounded unhappy or worried. Exactly the opposite: she had never heard him so full of joy. He was not behaving like he felt he was on a difficult path.  
  
Then she remembered all of the times on the phone that he cut himself off when he was talking about Dom. She remembered the awkward silences, the dead air. Oh my God, she thought, with sickening realization, he did not want her to know. He was afraid of her reaction. And with good cause, she realized, as she paced up and down the patio.  
  
She came to a decision. If Elijah's life was going to be more difficult because he had fallen love with a man, she was going to be the last person on earth to make it harder for him.  
  
***  
  
The Christmas pudding was completely gone. When Elijah discovered that it was from Dom's mother, he had made it his special mission to ensure that every morsel was consumed and appreciated. It was a dense dessert and had taken several nights' effort to consume, but at last his mission was accomplished. Unfortunately, he had not accomplished his other, more important, mission.  
  
It was New Year's Eve. Elijah had promised Dom he would tell his mother by the New Year. He gazed idly at the crumbs on his cake plate. If he didn't know better, he could have sworn that the crumbs were staring back at him reproachfully.  
  
Deborah, too, felt she had unfinished business with Elijah. She had waited and waited for him to bring it up, but nothing had happened. As she had learned during Elijah's contract negotiations, sometimes you just had to put your offer on the table first.  
  
"That was nice of the Monaghans to send us that pudding, wasn't it, Eli? Maybe they'll be coming out with Dom for a visit. Do you think Dom will visit you now that you're done filming?"  
  
Elijah stared at the crumbs on his plate so hard he was surprised they had not started to smoke. He did not want to have to face Dom with the news that he had not had the courage to tell his mother about their relationship. And here, miraculously, his mother had just presented him with a perfect opening. She had even used the words "coming out." It must be a sign. It was now or never.  
  
"Mom, there's something I want to talk to you about."  
  
"Yes, dear?"  
  
"It"s about New Zealand -- and Dom. You know, I, I made some really good friends there. The best friends I've ever had. It's been so great. It's made me realize I never really had friends before. Real friends." He stopped. He was rambling. So much for Dom's advice about not rehearsing, and just trusting it to flow when the moment came. He was never any good at improv. He noted in a detached way that he was still holding his fork in his right hand, and it was trembling.  
  
"The decision to go away for so long and be on your own was a good one, wasn't it?" Deborah encouraged him.  
  
"Yeah. It was." Elijah paused. "Anyway. Dom. You know about Dom. He's, uhm, he's been more than just a good friend. He's been, uhm, really special."  
  
"Yes, he does seem special." Deborah answered neutrally.  
  
"I mean *really* special, Mom. Special. You know what I mean?" Elijah"s voice trailed off. He felt like an idiot. If he had had the One Ring, he would have made himself disappear at that very moment. Hell, he would have thrown himself into Mt. Doom if he could have. The fork slipped onto his plate with a clatter.  
  
Deborah could not bear it any longer. "Elijah." She paused and collected herself. The moment of truth had arrived. "Are you telling me you are in love with Dominic Monaghan?"  
  
Suddenly Elijah felt dizzy, and he thought for one panicked moment he might pass out. His mother, God bless her, had somehow figured out what he was trying to say. All he had to do was answer her simple yes or no question and it would be over.  
  
"Yes," he whispered.  
  
Deborah reached across the table and took Elijah's shaking hand. "I have one question for you, Elijah. Does Dom understand how special *you* are?"  
  
Elijah was taken aback. What? No shock? No tears? No guilt? Asking him if Dom thought he was special was the last thing he had expected. He blushed. "Yes. Yes, he does."  
  
"Well, then I'm happy for you, dear. I can't wait to meet him."  
  
***  
  
Dom came to visit Elijah in Los Angeles just a month after they wrapped in New Zealand.  
  
"Mom, this is my boyfriend, Dom." Elijah said proudly.  
  
He marveled at how simple it was.  
  
Deborah smiled and shook Dom's hand, as if this was a pronouncement she heard every day from her son.  
  
"Hello, Dom," Deborah said. "Lovely to meet you."


End file.
